Once the camera rolls, the plan made in prep meets the clock. On-set operations covers the running of the shooting day: getting people to the right place on time, moving through setups, keeping everyone safe, and writing down what happened for the office, payroll, and the unions. The 1st AD runs all of it, so most of what you'll learn here is how the AD department thinks.
Before the day starts
A shooting day is built the night before. Read how to set call times to see a day worked backward from its first shot, then how to read a film call sheet for what the crew receives. This path assumes you can read a call sheet without help. If you can't yet, do the call sheets path first.
The vocabulary of a take
Every setup follows a loop the crew already knows, from blocking the scene through lighting, rehearsal, and takes, and then moving on to the next setup. Most of that loop is run by short calls on the production walkie channel, so learn the words first: blocking, marks, last looks, rolling, back to one, and lock-up. Walkie channels explains why channel 1 almost always belongs to production. The last two shots of the day have names too, the Abby Singer and the martini shot, and a set still in use gets called a hot set, which means nobody touches the dressing.
The physical layout comes next. Base camp holds the cast trailers, honeywagon, hair and makeup, wardrobe, and catering. Video village is where the director and script supervisor watch the monitors, and holding is where background waits until the 1st AD calls for them. When the company has to move between locations, company moves shows how to estimate the lost time and what it costs.
Keeping pace
A 1st AD tracks the day against the schedule from the first shot. How many script pages can you shoot in a day explains the math behind that: the minutes you actually have on camera, divided by your crew's real minutes per setup. The shot list template carries a time estimate for each setup, and it's what the AD checks progress against through the day. When the day falls behind, the usual choices are to combine or drop shots, push a scene to another day, or go into overtime. Each has a price, and the hot cost report shows it to the producers the next morning.
Meals, rest, and overtime
Penalties are run up during the day, often when a scene takes longer than planned. A late lunch turns into a meal penalty; meal penalties explained covers the rules, and the meal penalty calculator counts the half hours past the limit and prices them. A late wrap cuts into tomorrow's turnaround, which the turnaround calculator checks against the next call. On long days you'll also deal with overtime and a second meal. The rules differ by agreement, and unions and compliance covers where each one comes from.
Safety
The 1st AD holds a safety meeting at call time or before any hazardous work. On days with firearms, stunts, fog, water, heights, vehicles, or animals, productions attach the relevant safety bulletins to the call sheet and go over them at that meeting. The set medic treats injuries, keeps the injury log, and flags hazards to the 1st AD. Accidents and injuries also go on the daily production report.
Writing down what happened
After wrap, the day turns into paper. The script supervisor turns in notes and a continuity log, and camera and sound turn in their reports. The 2nd AD combines those into the daily production report, with Exhibit G covering SAG-AFTRA cast, and the UPM signs it. Crew hand in time cards weekly. At the end of the shoot, the wrap report compares scheduled and actual days, scenes, and pages, and lists overtime and meal penalties.
The AD department on the day
The 1st AD runs the floor. The 2nd AD handles base camp, cast movement, and the paperwork. The 2nd 2nd AD stays on set with background and lock-ups, and the key set PA assigns set PAs to their lock-up positions and manages the walkies. The day they're all running was planned on the stripboard, and the shooting schedules path shows how.